Is the regulator earthed through its backplate

[Blue_SV650S]

Is the regulator earthed through its backplate, or JUST the black wire that comes out?

[Blue_SV650S]

I take it no one knows??? :smt086

[plowsie]

Considering i have taking it out 4 times to replace with others i'd take a wildy guess and say no (not cos i've taken them out lots lol). Sorry not much help am i mate, feel free to use the big stick :D

[Blue_SV650S]

Considering i have taking it out 4 times to replace with others i'd take a wildy guess and say no (not cos i've taken them out lots lol). Sorry not much help am i mate, feel free to use the big stick :D

Hummmm .... well, that was ZERO help ... what were you thinking young man?!!? :smt043

But thanks at least for making me feel as if people can actually hear me!! :D

[Kyytsis]

No - at least SV has 5 leads going to the regulator.

3 x yellow from alternator
1 x red that goes through a fuse to the battery +
1 x black that goes to battery -

[yorkie_chris]

If anybody has got their bike in bits at the moment then it would be easy to check.

Disconnect the black and red plug, multimeter black wire and the battery -ve
Continuity? If so then yes.

Saw this about 4 hours too late as I've just had mine in bits! Doh!

[northwind]

Ah, that's clever. But I think it's not, if there was a designed path to earth then I doubt they'd have painted it. Could be wrong, though.

[zadar]

no.

[Spanner Man]

Morning all.

No it isn't, but it must be mounted against the frame to help dissipate the heat generated as it errrrr regulates!:D

Cheers.

[hovis]

no......... its not;)

[plowsie]

heat generated as it errrrr regulates!:D
Clever that, what you just did there :colors::smt048

[Spanner Man]

Clever that, what you just did there :colors::smt048


I know, it's a gift!!:D:jocolor:

[Blue_SV650S]

BTW the answer to my own question is YES it is!! ;)

I had a think about it - regulators work on the potential between the alternator and battery ... if you had the same wire feeding both the reg output and input … well it would not find much of a difference would it ... ;)

Long story short, I have made an earth strap from the backplate of my regulator to the mainframe and now getting a healthy charge!! :)

Beforehand the voltage would actually DROP when revved off tickover …

Even with lights and heated grips on, now it raises a bit from ~13.5v on idle, and then plateaus at ~14.5v* however hard you rev it … that’s better :)

*well it gets to ~14.5v and then it still sinks to ~14.1v, but not below that … happy boy!! :)

[Spanner Man]

Afternoon all.

This is getting interesting, it may well have a path to earth via the backplate, though it's not strictly necessary as it has a separate earth wire.

It's more likely that you have made the earthing of the electrical system as a whole better.

I have long been an advocate of running another earth wire from the negative battery terminal to the frame. Due to the Japs habit of running the battery earth lead to the engine. This is fine when the machine is new, but when the engine mounting bolts have corroded somewhat it isn't so good.

It would be interesting to see if you got the same improvement if you removed the lead from the regulator & ran it from the negative terminal of the battery to the frame.

Cheers.

[Blue_SV650S]

Afternoon all.

This is getting interesting, it may well have a path to earth via the backplate, though it's not strictly necessary as it has a separate earth wire.

It's more likely that you have made the earthing of the electrical system as a whole better.

I have long been an advocate of running another earth wire from the negative battery terminal to the frame. Due to the Japs habit of running the battery earth lead to the engine. This is fine when the machine is new, but when the engine mounting bolts have corroded somewhat it isn't so good.

It would be interesting to see if you got the same improvement if you removed the lead from the regulator & ran it from the negative terminal of the battery to the frame.

Cheers.

As the backplate is isolated from the black output wire, earthing the backplate won't find its way to earthing the battery ... i.e. all I have done is made the earth of the sub frame to the mainframe better.

So although running a new earth from battery to mainframe would never be a bad idea, I am not sure that would sort my original problem as ... well obviously the main frame is earthed well enough ... it was just the subframe that wasn't (and is now). 8)

[northwind]

Aye, but hang on... While I was testing out the CBR reg/rec, I had it just sat in the underseat, not touching any metal, and it worked perfectly, exactly the same as it does bolted to the frame.

[Spanner Man]

Aye, but hang on... While I was testing out the CBR reg/rec, I had it just sat in the underseat, not touching any metal, and it worked perfectly, exactly the same as it does bolted to the frame.

Which is why it doesn't need to earth through it's backplate.

Cheers.

[northwind]

Yep, exactly. It probably overheated like a mofo in there, mind :D

[Blue_SV650S]

but is a CBR reg/rec configured the same??? ...

Cold fact is that improving the earth AND live cables from the reg/rec didn't solve the problem on my SV (tried that first) ... adding an earthling strap from the backplate did ...

[Spanner Man]

Evening all.

I'm pretty certain that a CBR unit is similar in operation to an SV's.

It may well be the case that your earth wire in the RR plug isn't up to scratch, & if it does earth via the backplate aswell, then your earth lead to the main frame did the trick. Your theory that the sub frame isn't earthing properly due to an iffy connection via it's mounting bolts is quite plausible.

Let's not try to fathom the mysteries of Mr Electrical, just be happy it's working.

Cheers.

[Blue_SV650S]

Evening all.

I'm pretty certain that a CBR unit is similar in operation to an SV's.

It may well be the case that your earth wire in the RR plug isn't up to scratch, & if it does earth via the backplate aswell, then your earth lead to the main frame did the trick. Your theory that the sub frame isn't earthing properly due to an iffy connection via it's mounting bolts is quite plausible.

Let's not try to fathom the mysteries of Mr Electrical, just be happy it's working.

Cheers.

The black output wire has NO continuity with the backplate (tested resistance and it is infinite). I intercepted the RR wires as they exited the RR (i.e. before the plug) and ran new/secondary wires DIRECTLY to the battery. I did not 'snip' the original wires, just took back the insulation (with a Stanly knife) and soldered some piggy back wires to the exposed originals. Therefore i retain the original circuit, but improve its connection with the new wires. This increased the voltage a little, but it still showed the same signs of DROPPING voltage as the bike revved ... only when I earthed the backplate part of the RR did I get the regulator behaving as it should ...

Oh and yes ... now I have a un-fused LIVE wire!! :D Now I have proved/solved the problem, I'll stick a fuse in line (to be honest I could remove the live wire, but can't be bothered to take the rear end off AGAIN! :D so will just put say a 5A fuse in there :)).